City of Melbourne Packs ’em in

The 33rd running of the City of Melbourne Titles saw a close to 20% increase in entry numbers over last year – which itself was one of the biggest events of the karting year.

Damp conditions mixed up some qualifying and heat races, but overall there was some great racing to be seen.

TaG Light was the largest field, 49 drivers having to contest a series of heat races to cull the field to the track capacity of 36 for the pre-final.

Last years winner, Brad Jenner, qualified fastest and won all his heats and pre-final to start pole. Heat wins also went to Leigh Nicolaou and David Sera.

While pole-sitter Jenner had another bad start, Deadly Dave fired around the outside to lead the opening laps. However he couldn’t hold the pace as first Wall, then Jenner and Nicolaou made their way through.

The KA3 Senior Light final was a ripper. James Sera jumped to an early lead before Matthew McLean and Jack Bell made their way through. These two raced wheel-to-wheel and swapped the lead several times before Bell cracked a lead of a couple of tenths, taking a narrow and well deserved victory.

Broc Feeny was early favourite on Saturday, P1 in qualifying and first in the opening heats. Christian Pancione also had a heat win. Joshua Smith won the pre-final and crossed the line first in the final (with fastest lap) but was relegated to 3rd behind Jordyn Sinni and Feeney.

A win and a third in two Junior classes for Jordyn Sinni (pic – Pace Images)

There were lots of cheers and hugs from the family when Lewis Francis pipped Rusty Ponting and Cadel Ambrose in the run to the flag in Cadet 9. Francis had led most of the final before Ambrose continued his march forward got through with four to go, however a last lap pass put Francis back to P1 ahead of the consistent Ponting.

The final was a magnificent four-way battle between fastest qualifier Daniel Webster, veteran Remo Luciani and interstaters Jackson Callow and Dean O’Brien. Webster headed the field for most of the race, Remo getting past just after half distance. However, pre-final winner O’Brien got through in the final tour to take the win.

Fletcher Harris led all the way in the final, having earlier won all the heat races. James Wharton qualified fastest, but a DNF in the pre-final, followed by a lap one spin in the final ruined any chance of a result.